1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method of producing a cheese and preparing it for distribution, in which method of cheese production pretreated milk is concentrated through the whey being separated from the milk and the concentrated milk being added to and mixed with additives necessary for coagulation of the milk.
2. Description of Relevant Art
In conventional production of cheese the milk pretreated for cheese production is mixed with additives necessary for coagulation of the milk, most frequently rennet and/or other proteolytic enzymes, to form a gel. When the gel has reached a predetermined solidity the gel is broken up with the aid of special tools, known as breaking tools, so that smaller cubes with the desired size are formed. The broken up cheese mass is then subjected to mechanical treatment at the same time as the mass is heated according to a preset scheme, through which the whey is pressed out of and separated from the mass. After conclusion of the treatment/heating the mass is placed in moulds which determine the cheese's final shape, after which the cheeses thus formed are packaged in packagings of different types intended for distribution.
The conventional procedure described is time-consuming and most frequently requires manual monitoring and control in order to maintain the constant process conditions necessary for the desired quality of cheese during each one of the production stages. The procedure is in additon one which from the point of view of equipment requires a great deal of space and can only with difficulty be automated and carried out on the desired rational industrial scale.
Problems of the above type are solved at least partly through another known production procedure which takes as its starting point the fact that the pretreated milk is first concentrated through a liquid fraction (whey) being separated from the milk and the concentrated (protein- and fat-enriched) milk obtained is then added to and mixed with additives necessary for coagulation of the milk. Here it has proven to be particularly valuable to concentrate the milk through ultra-filtering, through which the separated liquid fraction can be made practically free from protein, fat and other constituents desirable for cheese production occurring in the milk which are thus retained in the concentrated milk extracted as pre-cheese retained matter. According to this known technology among other things the advantage is gained that practically all valuable constituents occurring in the milk can be retained and depending on the degree to which the milk is concentrated the amount of rennet and/or other proteolytic enzymes added for the coagulation can be reduced to a corresponding degree with cost savings gained thereby. Further the advantage is gained that the production process after the milk concentration can be carried out with considerably less process equipment requiring space and investment than the previously described conventional cheese production.